Wheeled dolly



F. L. ROBINSON WHEELED DOLLY Filed July 2, 1951 Sept. 3, 1957 I mmvroa 7 Frank L. Fob/baa ATTORNEY United States Patent WHEELED DOLLY Frank L. Robinson, Oakland, Calif.

Application July 2, 1951, Serial No. 234,709

1 Claim. (Cl. 280-791) The present invention relates to improvements in a pallet carrier, and its principal object is to provide a carrier of the character described that is simple in construction, compact, has an all-metal frame and a very low supporting base to guard against accidental tilting.

Pallets are used in various industries for the transporting stacked merchandise over short distances, principally for loading purposes, as for loading ships or warehouses or refrigerating cars or the like.

Pallets of this character usually consist of two straight layers, rectangular in form, the two layers being spaced by suitable spacing members such as two-by-sixes or twoby-eights standing on edge.

As a rule these pallets, upon receiving a stacked load of merchandise, are moved by means of fork trucks, the forks being introduced underneath the upper layer of planks and then being lifted for transporting the load to a place of destination.

In many cases the direct loading zone is not accessible for a truck, or the distances involved do not warrant the expense of a truck.

In the present invention it is proposed to provide a carrier arranged to have the pallet placed on top thereof and allowing the pallet to be rolled from place to place.

It is particularly proposed in the present invention to provide a carrier of the character described that has a bearing face close to the floor so as to guard against the danger of tilting except, in some modification, for a certain amount of controlled tilting to improve the maneuverability of the carrier.

It is further proposed to provide a carrier frame that is very simple in construction and in which all the elements are confined between closely related upper and lower planes.

It is a further object of the invention to mount the rollers with respect to the frame of the carrier in such a manner that the major portion of each roller is disposed between the two planes of the frame while only minor portions project downwardly below the lower plane.

It is further proposed in the present invention to provide a frame structure that readily adapts itself for many different arrangements for roller support depending upon the conditions under which the pallet carrier is to be used.

More particularly it is proposed to provide a carrier frame of the character described which is made almost entirely of angle iron, with the horizontal flanges of the angle irons disposed in a common horizontal plane to provide a carrying surface, and with the vertical flanges arranged in such a manner that they serve as bearings for the rollers and lend themselves to many diiferent arrangements of roller support.

Further objects and advantages of my invention will appear as the specification proceeds, and the novel features of my invention will be fully defined in the claim attached hereto.

The preferred forms of my invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in whicha CC Figure 1 shows a top plan view of a pallet carrier made in accordance with my invention,

Figure 2, a side view thereof,

Figure 3, a section taken along line 3-3 of Figure 1,

Figure 4, a side view of a modified form of my carner,

Figure 5, a section taken along line 55 of Figure 4,

Figure 6, a plan view of a modified form of carrier,

Figure 7, a bottom plan view of a corner section of the form shown in Figure 6, and

Figure 8, a side view of a further modification of the carrier.

While I have shown only the preferred forms of my invention, I wish to have it understood that various changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the-claim attached hereto without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Referring to the drawing in detail, and particularly to the form illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3, the carrier 1 is substantially rectangular in form and made of four longitudinal frame members 2 and two transverse end frame members 3 secured upon the ends of the longitudinal members. All of the frame members are preferably in the form of angle irons and have horizontal flanges 3' arranged in the same horizontal plane so as to form the top or carrying surface of the carrier. The

vertical flanges 4 of the longitudinal frame members project downwardly to the same depth to a horizontal plane running parallel to the top plane. The vertical flanges 5 of the transverse members 3 are made to abut the ends of the vertical flanges 4 and may stop short of the lower horizontal plane to slightly increase the clearance with respect to the supporting floor..

The longitudinal frame members 2 are arranged in two spaced pairs, the members of each pair being spaced with respect to one another. As will be clearly seen from Figure 1, the spacing between the two pairs is much larger than that between the members of each pair. The vertical flanges 4 of the members of each pair furnish bearings for the rollers 6. These rollers are supported on hexagonal shafts 7 mounted in the vertical flanges 4-, as shown in Figure 3, and held against endwise movement by any suitable means as by cotter pins 8. Suitable ball bearings are interposed between the shafts and the rollers. The bearings may be of conventional construction and comprise inner races 9 secured upon the shafts and outer races 10 having the rollers mounted thereon, the rollers being in cylindrical form.

The shaft 7 of each roller is mounted in the flanges 4 in such a manner that the main portion of each roller is accommodated between the upper and the lower planes of the frame, with only a minor portion projecting below the frame, as illustrated in Figure 3.

In the form of Figure 1 four rollers are provided on each side of the frame and the rollers are disposed in the same horizontal plane parallelling the top and bottom planes of the frame. This form may be considered the general utility form to be used where no particular obstacles are expected to be encountered and where general straight forward travel is principally anticipated.

The form illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 may be used where greater maneuverability is desired. In this form the rollers 11 on each side of the carrier are arranged in such a manner as to rise from the central plane toward both ends and to allow of a limited degree of tilting movement. These rollers are also preferably formed with a cambered surface, as shown in Figure 5, to facilitate turning movement in case more than one roller should contact the floor surface on each side while a turning movement is being executed. If the carrier is held absolutely horizontal with only the center wheels contacting the floor surface, the carrier may be readily turned in any direction desired like any two-wheel vehicle.

The modification of Figures 6 and 7 is also particularly intended for maneuverability, especially where it is desired to have continuous six wheel support without interfering with turning operations. In this form only two central rollers 12 are provided corresponding to the cylindrical rollers previously discussed, but additional swivel rollers 13 are provided in the four corners of the frame, these rollers being mounted upon the under faces of ,webs 14 arranged between the longitudinal frame members of each pair and in the upper plane of the frame. The swivel rollers 13 project downwardly as far in the common horizontal plane and presenting an unas the rollers 12 so that all six rollers contact the floor surface simultaneously without interfering with turning movement of the carrier.

The form shown in Figure 8 is particularly intended for use in refrigerating cars which usually have a slatted floor as indicated at 15. rollers on each side is increased to eight, and the rollers are spaced in such a manner that their spacing .does :not register with that of the slats in the floor, as shown, so that at least one-half of the rollers are positively sup-, ported by slats while intermediate rollers pass over the spaces between the slats.

The advantages of my carrier construction will be readily understood from the foregoing description. The frame which may be made of varying dimensions, varying possibly from 30 X 30 inches to 48 x 48 inches, has a perfectly fiat top surface spaced only slightly from the floor surface, is closely confined between two parallel planes, offers different degrees fo maneuverability, and lends itself particularly to a multitude of different arrangements of roller support, any change from one form to another merely involving a different positioning of the shafts 7 in the vertical flanges 4.

I claim:

In a pallet carrier, a flat rectangular frame comprising two spaced pairs of spaced longitudinal angle irons having horizontal flanges arranged in a common hori- In this form the number of broken rectangular outline with the longitudinal angle irons and projecting outwardly, central rollers having bearing in the vertical flanges of each pair of angle irons and projecting below the latter, a web for each corner of the frame connecting the horizontal flanges of the longitudinal angle irons in the plane of the latter flanges, and swivel rollers revolvably mounted upon the undersnrfaces of the webs and extending below the frame, the horizontal flanges of the outer angle irons and of the transverse angle ironsforming acontinuous, all around lip to facilitate handling of the carrier.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 68,811 Van Doren Sept. 10, 1867 222,898 Hallinan Dec. 23, 1879 620,331 Knapp Feb. 28, 1899 988,677 Vanmanen Apr. 4, 1911 1,002,091 Storck Aug. 29, 1911 1,580,367 Beulke Apr. 13, 1926 1,715,403 Young June 4, 1929 1,728,436 Morrison Sept. 17, 1929 1,733,043 Zelewski Oct. 22, 1929 1,876,534 Adams Sept. 13, 1932 1,895,844 Contois Jan. 31, 1933 1,990,806 Watson et al. Feb. 12, 1935 2,307,149 Milz et al. Jan. 5, 1943 2,536,561 Mickam Jan. 2, 1951 Ludwig et al. Aug. 19, 1952 

